Finger Food Friday on Monday

Actually, if you want to nitpick, this would really be "Finger Food Saturday on Monday". Last Friday was just me and Lils, so we took off and had Subway Sandwiches for dinner with my grandparents. And while yes, Subway would qualify as Finger Food, I didn't want to go through the hassle of explaining to my grammy what a blog is and why I'm taking pictures of her eating a sandwich. So I waited until Mr. C brought our crew home from their week-long camping trip and made them all welcome-home-potato skins.

Let's just jump right in, shall we?

First you wash the potatoes and poke 'em all over with a fork. (That part feels really good on a day when you have a lot of pent up anger). Then you throw em in your oven and cook them for an hour at 400 degrees.

An hour, folks.

Go paint your nails or something. Take a nap. Play some Bejeweled.

Okay. Are you back?

Go ahead and take the potatoes out of the oven and let them cool.

While they're cooling, do some chopping.

Chop up 3 scallions:

Save half for the skins toppings, and throw the other half in 1 cup of Greek Yogurt. Toss in a 'lil teaspoon of salt and stir it up till it looks like this:

Only whiter and with not as many shadows.

Then, don't do what I did and set your backyard on fire while cooking

bacon on the grill. (I am serious- we were this close to calling the fire department. I think if Mr. C has anything to say about it, I'm forever banned from using the grill ever again)

This was all I saved from the bacon massacre of 2010:

Who needs it anyway?

Um, actually, I totally do. Thankfully, I had reserved half the package of bacon and was able to cook the rest of it inside. My house smelled up, which is what I was trying to avoid, but my back wall is still standing, so I'm calling it allllll good in the hood.

So, to get back on track.

By now the potatoes have cooled, so you can cut them in half lengthwise. Scoop out most of their insides, leaving about a 1/2 inch of potato (meat? flesh?) around the sides.

If this was winter, I'd say to take those insides and cook up a pot of Loaded Bake Potato Soup. Alas, it's summer and who wants to eat soup? Do what I did and turn it into a yummy potato salad for the next night's din-din.

Okay. We're almost done. Take a bottle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and lightly pour it over the skins (about twice around). With your fingers, rub the olive oil into the skins and then salt it all up. Don't be shy with the salt- keep in mind how good potato chips taste with lots of salt. Then add a little bit of pepper.

It'll look like this:

Throw those back into the oven at 400 for 10 minutes.

Now, at this point, I had to leave. I had a date with some other mommies. so the rest of this FFF is documented courtesy of Mr. C. He forgot to take a pic of what the naked skins looked like when you take 'em out of the oven- but the rest of it, he managed okay.

Here's PG putting her toppings on. I left a tray of a few types of grated cheeses, crumbled bacon, and green onions, but you can fancy it up with almost anything your heart desires in your household:

Here's J. I'm a little surprised by how serious he's taking this:

Here's 9:

Also serious.

And here's Baby Roo.

She's all "Yo, daddy. Gimme some skins."

Sorry.

Also, just need to let you know that I am not responsible for the barrette in the center of her forehead. That little fashion disaster must've happened after I left the premises.

Anyway, this is getting a little long and I'd really like to wrap it up and watch Last Comic Standing with Mr. C. So, here's what the skins look like when you take 'em out:

Yummy. I highly recommend the bacon, pepper jack cheese, and scallion combination. Top it with the Greek Yogurt dip that you mixed up earlier.

Fun and yum for the whole family.

I'll leave you with this image:

My first thumbs up from Baby Roo! Her expression is a little wonky, but I'll take the compliment.

You all have a good night!